Priorities
further R&D and innovations to enable drone operations to be safe, equitable, ubiquitous and financial viable
Social Acceptance
Drones are expected to increasingly influence our daily lives. The effects of public acceptance for new technologies has not always been smooth. The growing drone economy will poses new challenges to the public in terms of safety, security, respect of citizens’ rights, noise and visual pollution, transparency over what the drone is doing and who it belong. To shape the use of drones the understanding of the benefits –economic and social – and engaging the public in a dialogue should have to be promoted.
ATM/U-space convergence
The ultimate goal is a fully integrated ATM / U-space ecosystem without segregation between ATM users and U-space that enables efficient and safe traffic management operation. The definition of fully integrated ATM / U-space CONOPS , the concept of information exchange and requirements, the relevant solutions to cover seamless operations inside and outside controlled airspace should have to be examined and defined to address capacity, safety and efficiency of all operations.
Urban Air Mobility
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) ecosystem that enables on-demand, highly automated, passenger or cargo-carrying air transport services with particular reference to the urban, suburban and interurban environments, where aviation is often highly regulated today should have to be investigated to address urban airspace architecture and management, characteristics of low-level urban environments, relevant ground and air risks to enable to manage potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of UAM movements per hour over and around
Advanced U-space services
Advanced U-space services requires the setting up of fundamental enablers for scalable, flexible and adaptable services. The technologies to enable performance-based communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) services in U-space should have to be identified and assessed in operational environments to address strategic/tactical conflict resolution, advanced detect and avoid (DAA) systems, mobile telecommunication infrastructure and its suitability for U-space, multiple U-space service providers interaction, geofencing services.
Vertiport
Viable drone alone won’t elevate the new UAM ecosystem, the ground infrastructure necessary to support and enable scaled people and cargo transportation in the urban, suburban and interurban environments is not yet in place . Vertiports – the take-off and landing solutions for UAM to support the transportation of passengers and cargo – should have to be defined to address operational environment conditions as well as all contingencies, ensuring safe, effective, and resilient flight operations.
Regulatory
The management of traffic for drones should be ensured through the U-space. U-space regulatory framework should have to create and harmonise the necessary conditions for manned and unmanned aircraft to operate safely in the U-space airspace, so as to prevent collisions between aircraft and to mitigate the air and ground risks. The U-space regulatory framework, supported by clear and simple rules, should permit safe aircraft operations in all areas and for all types of unmanned operations..
PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPP)
Instruments to address key challenges
Horizon 2020 funds two Public Private Partnerships instruments: Clean Sky 2 (1.755Bn€ from H2020 and 2.245 M€ from the private sector to reach 4Bn€ in total) and SESAR 2020 (585M€ from H2020, 10M€ from CEF, 1,3M€ of assigned revenues, plus the 1.003M€ contribution from the private sector, amounting to a total budget of 1,6Bn€).
Along SESAR 2020 drone operation related projects and all projects within the European Innovative Programme (EIP), Smart Cities and Communities (SCC), Urban Air Mobility (UAM) initiative helps opening the European drone services market.
